Anna Hu selected for national mental health fellowships

By Mississippi Today | Originally published by Mississippi Today

Mississippi Today reporter Anna Hu has been selected for two national fellowships.

Hu, the newsroom’s first reporting fellow focused on mental health and underserved communities, is the recipient of the 2026 National Press Foundation’s Covering Workplace Mental Health fellowship. 

She will participate in two days of training in May with experts in organizational psychology and human resources, as well as hear from award-winning mental health journalists. 

Hu, who is completing a master’s degree in journalism at Harvard Extension School, was also selected for the Asian American Journalists Association Voices program, a multimedia fellowship for college and graduate students that equips them with skills to succeed in their careers. Hu will receive training from the organization and produce a story on the Asian American community by the end of the fellowship, which will be co-published by Mississippi Today and AAJA.

“I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to learn from fellow journalists and editors at the National Press Foundation and the Asian American Journalists Association,” Hu said. “I’m excited to take these lessons back to my reporting in Mississippi, to cover our communities with nuance and care.”

Laura Santhanam, Mississippi Today’s health editor, said Hu has been hard at work developing sources and story ideas since beginning her work at Mississippi Today in early April.

“There is such a need for her curiosity and storytelling power to explore and better understand the factors that perpetuate mental health disparities, including those experienced within Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, statewide, and we at Mississippi Today are eager to share and amplify what Anna uncovers,” she said.

Hu is the inaugural recipient of the Sarah Yelena Haselhorst Fund for Health Journalism at Mississippi Today and is exploring issues in mental health, maternal health and underserved communities across Mississippi. The fund was named after Sarah Haselhorst, a journalist who was passionate about storytelling and shedding light on the factors that influenced and perpetuated health disparities in Mississippi. After Haselhorst died in 2024 at age 31, her family created the fund in her honor.  

This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Source: Original Article